Comic Launch: ‘Back to the Future with Beo and Raja – A Tale from the Early Bioeconomy’

Following the success of the ‘Finding Beo’ comic featuring a girl called Beo and her loyal dog Raja, a sequel ‘Back to the Future with Beo and Raja – A Tale from the Early Bioeconomy’ was officially launched in March 2024 at UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture (CEAMC) by Peter Burke TD, Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs and Defence.

The comic was a collaboration between the BioBeo Horizon Europe project, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, UCD School of Archaeology’s CEAMC, Cultural Landscapes and Social Spaces (CLaSS) project, and the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University. Funding was also provided by UCD Institute of Food and Health and BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre. The comic explores how people in early medieval Ireland lived with their environment, with a special emphasis on hazel woodland management and house building, amongst other things (flax for linen), and the range of animals, birds and insects that existed then. The ancient sport of hurling is also featured. The comic is part of a suite of BioBeo bioeconomy educational resources including animated videos, board games, newsletter, and virtual/augmented reality.

The launch of the comic coincided with an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) at Maynooth University involving student teachers from BioBeo partners, and preceded the project flagship event, the BioBeo Festival held in Brussels. The festival aim was to bring bioeconomy closer to education and was created as a satellite event of the EU Bioeconomy Changemakers Festival. It was a vibrant day full of fascinating workshops, interesting lectures, live music, comedy, and animation.

The comic can be downloaded at: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/25436 (English) and http://hdl.handle.net/10197/25437 (Irish). Black and white versions are also available for colouring. Further resources including newsletter, podcast and videos can be found on the BioBeo website: https://www.biobeo.eu/project-outcomes/